I’ve written a lot about how your testosterone and health are linked, looking at the benefits of having higher/ healthy testosterone levels and the negatives/ heath impact of having low testosterone levels. What we haven’t looked at is, what your actual testosterone levels should be and what low, average and high testosterone levels actually look like in terms of figures. So this is what today article is going to be looking at.
How The Body Uses Testosterone
Prior to looking at the levels themselves, I thought it would be useful to go over at a high level what testosterone is used for.
Testosterone in males is important for:
- Development during puberty
- Sperm creation
- Strengthening of muscles and bones
- Sex drive
Testosterone in females is essential for:
- Maintaining levels of other hormones
- Sex drive and fertility
- Making new blood cells
Having low or unhealthy testosterone levels actually effects more than just the above, you can find out more on how testosterone and health are linked in terms of both how low levels and high levels effect your health with these Testosterone And Health Articles.
Some Things To Note Regarding Testosterone Levels
Before we jump in to what are considered normal, low and high testosterone levels. There were a couple of things I wanted to make sure were noted in regard to testosterone levels as a whole. For most people testosterone levels peak around the age of 20 & will start to decline around the age of 30 by approximately 1% per year.
Even if T levels are naturally declining, if you sit in the low end of the scale, this shouldn’t be the case and with the natural decline, you can still take steps to increase your levels and gain the benefits to be had from higher T! You can find out more about the benefits of having higher testosterone in this article on Testosterone And Health – The Benefits Of Higher T
The Different Ways To Measure Testosterone Levels
There are two major ways that doctors or medical professionals/ services may look at measuring your testosterone levels, these are:
Testosterone in nanograms per deciliter (ng/dl):
This is what most medical professionals and services use and what you will most commonly see in studies in to testosterone levels.
The Tanner Scale:
This has been used to track the visual development of children during puberty, in line with the five fixed 
stages rather than a person’s specific age.
As an example, stage two of the Tanner scale refers to the growth of a boy’s testicles or development of breast buds for girls, as supposed to their actual age.
As hormone levels change very quickly throughout puberty and development happen at different ages for people, the Tanner scale is often viewed as a more accurate scale to judge changes during puberty as supposed to looking at the age of an individual.
For the purpose of this article we are going to look at levels on the basis of ng/dl, mainly as I feel the majority of people this article will be read by/ relevant to are adults. I will however be publishing a separate article on the Tanner scale at a later date, so keep an eye out for that and if you have any questions on the tanner scale, just drop me a comment below.
Testosterone Levels
The following tables show the range for healthy levels of total testosterone in the body. Levels with differ within this range; but as long testosterone levels fall within it, they should be considered healthy.
Adult Male: 300-1,000 ng/dl
Adult Female: 15- 70 ng/dl
Low & High Levels
For men anything below 300 is considered to be low and if you are at this point, I would advise to get this seriously looked at. For women, while the average is 15 – 70, there is no generally perceived low levels, although I’d suggest that anything below 15 is definitely on the low end and should potentially be looked at.
Unfortunately low levels of testosterone are fairly common for men in particular but women as well. As mentioned earlier in this article, there are a number of health issues linked to low testosterone, which you can find out more about in this: Testosterone And Health – The Impact of Low T article
Much the same as with low levels for women, there is no clear guidelines as to what is considered high levels for men but anything above 1,200 ng/dl would be considered high. It is worth noting that without some form of “synthetic” assistance (steroids, TRT et.c) it’s going to be difficult to exceed the 1,200 ng/dl mark.
High levels of testosterone in women again are anything above the 75 mark, there are health issues that can come with women having too much testosterone, while this is rare, it’s usually something that doctors identify pretty quickly and easily!
How To Know What Your Testosterone Levels Are
So we’ve spoken in this testosterone and health article about what your levels should be; but how do you know if your levels 
are below what is healthy or at the low end of the average range? You can get tests through your doctors; but going through the NHS this can be quite a long process and mean jumping through quite a few hoops, there are also private companies that offer home testosterone testing kits, they will then analyze your sample and provide your results online for you at access along with any advised actions.
You can find out more about testing services and the UK based service that I recommend in this Recommended UK Home Testosterone Test Article
Can You Boost Testosterone Production & Levels?
If you’ve had your levels tested and it turns out you have low T or if you fear you have low T. It is possible to boost testosterone levels naturally through diet, exercise and lifestyle and also through therapies.
In fact this whole site is designed to help you naturally boost testosterone production. So if having low T is a reality or a worry take a look at my other articles. If having low T levels is something that you still suspect, check out this Testosterone And Health article – The Signs of Low T and see if it’s relevant to yourself, if it is, there’s a possibility you are suffering from low testosterone levels.
Final Thoughts
I hope you have found this article on Testosterone and health interesting and you’ve been left with a clear sense of what healthy testosterone levels look like. If you have any queries in regard to this article, your testosterone and health or how to boost testosterone production, just drop me a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
